The Top 10 Hits That Took Over Summer 1961

The summer of 1961 occupies a unique position in history, as it's when some classic songs by beloved and foundational artists, along with largely forgotten relics by flash-in-the-pan performers, captivated listeners for those warm summer months. A few years after rock 'n' roll took shape and spread throughout the U.S. and beyond, and just before the British Invasion made tight and fuzzy garage rock the standard youthful music of the day, the pop chart was dominated by gently crooned and crisp ballads of love and heartbreak, hard-charging R&B, and folk-inspired music. That middle section of 1961 subsequently became one of the most varied periods of the whole '60s decade.

According to Billboard and various data gathered from the all-genre, all-compassing Hot 100 chart, these are the 10 songs that were absolutely everywhere in the summer of 1961, including hits from Bobby Lewis, the Highwaymen, Gary U.S. Bonds, Pat Boone, and more.

For most of the summer, seven weeks in total across July and August, the pop chart was dominated by Bobby Lewis's "Tossin' and Turnin'." That makes it one of the early rock era's most persistent No. 1 songs. Lewis's blustery, booming, gospel-trained voice brought to life a bewildering, frenetic, and relatable composition by songwriters Ritchie Adams and Joe Rene that equated romantic frustration regarding a lovers' spat with the inability to sleep. Throughout the song, a jittery Lewis absolutely tears his bed apart and gets restless over an affair gone awry, but it's all delivered so joyfully that "Tossin' and Turnin'" became the biggest party song of the summer of '61.

One of the most-played tunes of 1961, "The Boll Weevil Song" was a partially spoken humorous novelty built around a conversation between a sociopathic insect and a farmer forced to defend himself. R&B star Brook Benton sang this classic pop hit with no known author, based on a folk song known throughout America's cotton-growing regions because it's about a cotton-destroying boll weevil and the farmer who wishes him undying agony. In July 1961, "The Boll Weevil Song" found a home in the No. 2 spot.

Co-written by performer Chris Kenner and jazz great Allen Toussaint, "I Like It Like That" took some popular Louisiana slang of the time and made it into an infectious R&B song. Often covered, interpolated, and sampled by rock, jazz, and pop artists, the first half of the sprawling "I Like It Like That" scaled the charts in the summer of 1961, resting at the No. 2 spot for three weeks in July and August.

The folk movement captivating big-city coffeehouse crowds in the early '60s showed up on the pop chart in a big way in September 1961 when collegiate singing group the Highwaymen took over the No. 1 spot for two weeks with "Michael," a song that captures the poetic soul of folk rock. It's an earnest revival of a song from the 19th century sung by enslaved people while riding on ships to forced labor on Southern plantations. Initially issued as a single in January, it didn't appear on the Hot 100 until July, and then quickly moved up to No. 1.

The breakout star of a vocal group called the Kool Gents, Dee Clark presented himself as a solo act modeled after Little Richard. He didn't land a hit until a stormy drive one night led him to compose a piece built on weather-evoking sound effects. That's not real rainfall and thunder popping up throughout "Raindrops," alas. The song, seemingly about more out-of-season precipitation, steadily ascended the Billboard Hot 100 in the late spring of 1961, finally reaching No. 2 in late June, the most notable track in Clark's career.

Recorded live to capture the electric stage chemistry of singer Gary U.S. Bonds and his backing band, "Quarter to Three" is a rollicking party song that describes a shindig that's somehow even more raucous. Bonds sings with everything he's got until he's raspy, and that, along with some blazing saxophone, made the song about dancing and playing into the wee hours of the night a perfect song for summer parties. A rock song from 1961 that sounds even cooler today, it occupied the No. 1 position for two weeks in June and July.

Elvis Presley was so immensely popular in the early 1960s that even his rejects could be No. 1 hits for other singers. In the 1960 movie "G.I. Blues," Presley sings "Wooden Heart," an English-German brass ballad based on an old German song. Presley's label, RCA, wasn't keen on issuing that as a single in the U.S., so producer Shelby Singleton Jr. rushed a more rock 'n' roll version onto the recording slate of rookie singer Joe Dowell. The public loved it anyway: It spent a week at No. 1 in August 1961.

As a major star of the late 1950s, Pat Boone made a career out of recording pre-existing country and R&B hits with the rough edges sanded off for mainstream radio. One such song was "Moody River," first performed by country performer Chase Webster. Recorded in a tough to sing high register to make Boone sound like he was in as much mourning over a dead lover as possible, "Moody River," a comeback smash, hit the airwaves the same day that it was produced. It was No. 1 for a week in June 1961.